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Soccer fans will soon travel to watch the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, staying in hotels and going to a stadium built by tens of thousands of migrant workers.
However, the Qatari authorities have been criticized for treating the workers badly, leading to the deaths of several people.
How many employees are there to work?
Qatar to build seven new football stadiums for the World Cup including airports, subway systems, roads, and around 100 new hotels.
A new city was built around the football stadium that would be used for the final. Qatar’s government says it has hired 30,000 foreign workers to build the stadium. Most come from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.
How many foreign workers have died?
In February 2021, The Guardian newspaper reported that 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died since Qatar hosted the Games.
The figures come from foreign embassies in the country, but Qatar says this is misleading. Because not everyone will die working in the World Cup. Some people may die of aging and other natural causes.
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Trade unions from around the world have criticized Qatar for its poor treatment of its workers.
Trade unions from around the world have criticized Qatar for its poor treatment of its workers. The government says 37 people who built football stadiums died between 2014 and 2020, and only three were attributable to cause. “work related”
However, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said it was too low an estimate. Qatar does not count deaths from heart attacks or respiratory failure as work-related causes. Although those symptoms are often caused by heat stroke (Heat Stroke) or heat stroke caused by heavy labor in hot weather.
The International Labor Organization says there will be 50 deaths among foreign workers in 2021 alone. More than 500 people were seriously injured and another 37,600 suffered light to moderate injuries.
The BBC’s Arabic division has also gathered evidence which suggests that the Qatari government is under-reporting deaths among migrant workers.
How are foreign workers treated?
Since Qatar hosted the Games in 2010, human rights groups have criticized the way migrant workers are treated. He accused a Qatari company of forced labor and said many of the workers’ houses were in unsanitary conditions. Forced to pay large sums of money to help find a job Salary and passport confiscated.
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The Qatari government promises to improve labor housing conditions.
The Qatari government has promised to improve the living conditions of workers and since 2017 has taken measures to protect workers working in hot weather. with limited working hours and improving the housing for the better
However, a 2021 report by Human Rights Watch noted that migrant workers still had their wages deducted “to punish them for committing an illegal act” and that workers worked hard for months without receiving a paid job.
The Qatari company uses a so-called “kafala” system that subsidizes migrant workers but does not allow them to leave their jobs.
After being pressured by groups such as the International Labor Organization the Qatari government eventually scrapped that system, but Amnesty International says employers continue to pressure workers not to switch to other companies. They say that labor reforms should not stop as soon as the World Cup ends.
What does the Qatar government say about the rights of foreign workers?
Working with the International Labor Organization, the Qatar government has introduced measures such as income protection programs to ensure that employers pay wages on time.
A government spokesperson told the BBC that reform measures are coming into force and that the number of companies breaking the rules is getting smaller and smaller.
What are the national teams like?
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has written to all 32 national teams saying it needs to focus on football now. They say sport should not be part of a political or ideological “war”.
However, 10 European football associations, including those of England and Wales, say that human rights are universal and must be taken into account wherever they are.
The Australian national team has released a video criticizing the abuse of migrant workers. The Danish team will wear all black, toned down in protest of Qatar’s history of human rights abuses.
